Artist - Ryan Graeff

With all the furniture shopping we had going on these past few months, Jay and I spent some good times together at Helms Bakery (an old industrial bakery, turned into a collection of great furniture stores). One of the stores we visited had these great paintings that haunted me for months. They were layered, silk screened, urban views of landmark (and non-landmark) parts of LA. They artist's sense of color was great and every painting was better than the last. There's a collaged feel to the works and they're very modern.
When it was finally time to start talking about what art to put up, I realized I didn't only want my art in the house... I wanted one of Ryan Graeff's paintings.
So I hunted him down online! And it just so happened that the weekend we wanted to buy something was the weekend that he was collecting all his pieces back and preparing for an art show. So everything was at his studio. Jay and I went and really enjoyed meeting Ryan in person. We thought a lot about which painting to get, but in the end settled on one of the 110 freeway... Very urban, very LA, very red. :) (it's the bottom pic here)
We were so excited to bring it home. And when we did, we realized the painting is too small to go over our fireplace. ...so now it's in the family room... And we've warned Ryan we are coming back again some other day...